Difference of Opinion

Today's rant du jour centers on the concept that, apparently contrary to popular belief, you're allowed to enjoy something obscure or unpopular without being a snob about it; conversely, you can not enjoy something that is popular without spoiling it for everyone else!  To take an easy and self-centered example, because I'm a generous soul, let's talk about weather.

So, how 'bout this rain we've been having lately?

I kid, I kid.  Mostly.  As a newspaper carrier, I get so much small talk about what the sky's been doing that I could, and frequently do, chatter inanely about meteorological shenanigans in my sleep.   Much of it consists of people kvetching about the rain and me listening and making sympathetic noises.  Alternately, when the clouds part, there's a lot of "Well, at least it isn't raining on you today!" to which I smile and make noises of agreement and sometimes, if the customer is one I talk with fairly frequently, and the weather's been not only clear but warm, make some wry comment about my readiness to trade heat for rain.



The thing is, I'm a rainy weather guy.  Outright, heavy rain on my newspaper route is a huge pain and not something that I enjoy, but light rain? Mist?  Overcast, cool weather?  I freakin' love it.    The colours go all soft and vibrant, the scents of flowers and grasses fill the air, the light shifts and changes with the consistency of the clouds, the moments of sun reveal skyscapes worthy of some mythological metropolis - it's gorgeous.  Add to this the fact that I run obscenely warm, making paper delivery on a sunny fifty-degree day a sweltering misery, and I adore cool, cloudy weather.

Once upon a time, I felt it my place to stridently inform anyone who'd listen, for a value of "listen" consisting of "not actively flee or cover their ears."  Here were all these heathen Normal People, raving about their precious hot sunny weather and disparaging my beloved, rare (at the time, I lived in New Mexico) clouds!  Bah, I'd show THEM a thing or two!  I was unique, you know, and my weather was better anyway!

Yeah, sure, I showed them.  I showed them, as if they had any doubt to begin with, that there's a reason teenagers have a reputation for being sullen and argumentative, and I didn't accomplish a blessed thing aside from that.

And you know what I realized, sometime in college?  It doesn't make a lick of difference.  Aside from one or two oddballs who never got the memo, these folks weren't telling me I had to share their preferences - by and large, adults, and I mean people who are actually mature, not just people who are chronologically over eighteen, don't give a damn, because it doesn't effect them.  My liking cloudy weather doesn't diminish their enjoyment of sun.  My liking clouds doesn't take away from their enthusiasm for clear skies.

The same goes for music, books, movies...okay, so your little cousin likes Justin Beiber, and you think he's an obnoxious little twerp, but so long as your cousin isn't a spoilt brat who insists on playing only their music all the time without headphones, you can work something out.  Listen to their music sometimes, just grin and bear it, and then listen to your own.

The opinions of random people on the street or the internet have even less bearing, and you know what?  Yours are the same!  You love a band nobody's heard of?  Awesome!  Tell people about it, but don't go on at length, because you're not better than them, just like they're not better than you, and liking Neutral Milk Hotel isn't better than liking the Beatles.


Not liking the Beatles isn't better than liking the Beatles - unless somebody's forcing something on you, you don't need to tell them you dislike it!  You can say maybe it's not your cup of tea, or you're not really in the mood for it, or find one thing about it you do like and focus on that, so you don't get overwhelmed with chatter about something you don't give a toss about or honestly dislike.  All of these offer that escape, without making the other person feel like crap for the very human fact that they have an opinion.

Be glad they do.  Be glad they're passionate about it. You don't have to share it in order to be glad that, in a society that encourages us to be cool about things, and to enjoy popular things because they're popular, a diversity of thought and opinion still thrives.